Pilot's Folly
by mosomedve
Summary: This takes place during the Heir To The Empire by Timothy Zahn. Elka is just a Balosar, and sadly a pilot's folly.


"Damn, not again! This is not the time for this!" Elka's voice squealed, as the YT-2550 Corellian Freight ship began to shake.

"Come on, we can make this, I know we can. This isn't the first time you tried to give up, and we pulled through!" It was becoming an annoying daily basis for something to shut down or break off.

"Fine! Just hold out until we get there!" She began regretting buying a ship called, _Pilot's Folly_. Elka pushed her small transport ship to its breaking point, causing it to go off course to the nearby planet, instead of Kessel.

"No!" Her voice shrieked and tears poured through the deep russet eyes which hid behind her thick white bangs.

As the ship entered the atmosphere the Corellian Freight started to rattle and loose parts flew off, due to the jangle Elka became dizzy and light-headed. Every color blended together before turning completely white. The crash was felt but not seen, smells of thick smoke and blood swarmed around in the _Pilot's Folly_.

Time passed quickly with Elka's head pounding and blood dripping out of her nose, slipping inside her mouth. Had it not been for the constant ringing of a voice, she would have continued to sleep. But her eyes slowly opened and the words began sounding more clear.

"Answer!" It echoed around the steel walls of the ship.

"Answer outsider!" The voice was smooth against the steel, but with the mixture of the smoke and the crash it just made Elka more nauseous.

The very thought of answering the ringing voice, hurt Elka. She would rather stay laying in her seat until her body regained enough strength to try to fix the Pilot's Folly. But as she looked around weakly, she noticed the fire on the dash-board, and as the radiation was breathed in, it occur that Elka could not feel her body, nor could she sense anything with her annennapalps.

"This is the last time I'll call out, answer me!" His voice was hard.

"Help." Was all Elka could manage as her eyes shut once more.

"What are you doing here outsider?" His hair was thick, long, and wild. It was the first thing that stuck in Elka's mind when she woke up on the rough ground. The long copper hair and intense blue eyes were the only thing that stood in focus of Elka.

"I was trying to get to Kessel. I am supposed to pick up a package." She started to get up but ended up collapsing back down. Everything ached. The pain became so much, it was hard to focus on the simplest colors of blue in the man's eyes.

"But why are you here!" He was loud but calm.

"My ship. My ship!" Elka wondered how much it was going to cost to fix all the repairs it would need from this crash.

"So, I am supposed to believe that you just crashed on this planet because of what? Bad luck?"

"Have you seen my ship? It's called the Pilot's-"

"Folly. Yes, I have seen it, I saw it land on our grounds."

"If you saw it, then you should understand what happened." Talking was taking a toll on her, her words came out slower, and with a slight slur.

"Carth, we help her." A new voice spoke, but this one wasn't human, its voice sounded like a purr.

Carth nodded to his companion and wrapped his arms around the Balosar and carried her to a small home.

"Thank you." Elka spoke with her eyes shut. "Thank you." She whispered once more before drifting to sleep.

"Yes, my lord, we saw her crash here about three days ago." Another purring alien spoke, sounding uptight.

"I have questions to ask her." Another voice said, loudly, pounding, not aggressive.

"Of course, my lord."

The door opened swiftly and outside stood two men, a human and a blue humanoid. Both men walked up with confidence and looked down at Elka who was laying on a hard bed covered in bandages.

They introduced themselves, with a cold greeting. But even though the Grand Admiral had begun talking, Elka kept her eyes on Pellaeon, before finally switching to Thrawn.

Grand Admiral Thrawn examined Elka with interest. She hadn't excepted this, treated like a criminal just for having her ship break down. The pink antennapalps were fully extend but sensed nothing from the Chiss that hovered around her body, investigating every inch of her. It was like he was feeling nothing, this startled Elka.

Feeling sickly, sweat dripped swiftly out of her forehead and slipped across the sides of the skinny cheeks before disappearing behind the neck. Trepidation was transparent inside Elka's deep russet eyes, long silver eye lashes fluttered, as anticipation grew deeper. Elka's lips began to quiver so she sucked on the bottom one, popping a blood vessel.

"What's your name?" His voice was smooth and collect, both arms were behind him, and he stood tall.

"Elka Bre'kor."

"What is your purpose here?"

"Purpose? I crashed on this planet. Trying to get to Kessel." Elka allowed her tone to show her annoyance with having to repeat her story. Causing all built up fear she felt, to leave quickly.

"The ships name is the Pilot's folly."

"Yeah that is the name on the side of the ship." She rolled her eyes.

"Are you aware that the Pilot's Folly is a known criminal vessel? And had been connected to numerous smuggling actives. So tell me what is your purpose here? " His voice showed a more perplexed tone.

"I was not told of the history of the cursed ship. I just needed to get to Kessel to pick up a cargo and take it to Sullust."

"What is the nature of the cargo awaiting you on Kessel?"

"Food stuffs." She shrugged.

"You are lying. You are no doubt a smuggler, on your way to collect banned products of the criminal world of Kessel.. Captain see that she is taken to the Chiamera and taken to the brig. "

Captain Pellaeon motioned for the Noghri to pull Elka from her rest place and dragged her out of the hunt. As Pellaeon turned to leave also, Thrawn said to him. "Put her with the Gungan spy."

"I am not a criminal!" She found herself speaking without warning.

"No, just an unlucky pilot." His eye brows shifted in a questioning manor.

"A pilot's folly." Her voice didn't carry far. "Those little creatures showed me more respect."

"We do not show respect to criminals." His voice was laced with trained professional military it was obvious he was the job.

"I am not a criminal." Elka was fast in the retort.

"Just tell me about the package."

"I already told you about it! I keep telling you about it! Stop wasting my time!"

"You are the one who keeps wasting my time. Now inform me again." He was so cool and calm.

"I was heading to Kessel from Coruscant-" Elka spoke, not in a whine but per annoyance, before getting cut off again.


End file.
